American Modern: Hopper to O'Keeffe - (Hardcover)

About the Book

Includes work by Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, George Ault, Matthew Rackham Barnes, George Bellows, Peter Blume, Margaret Bourke-White, Charles Burchfield, Paul Cadmus, Ralston Crawford, Imogen Cunningham, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Edwin Dickinson, Preston Dickinson, Arthur Dove, Walker Evans, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Gaston Lachaise, Armin Landeck, Dorothea Lange, Clarence John Laughlin, Robert Laurent, Jacob Lawrence, Martin Lewis, Louis Lozowick, Man Ray, John Marin, Wright Morris, Gerald Murphy, Elie Nadelman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Outerbridge, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Niles Spencer, Edward Steichen, Ralph Steiner, Joseph Stella, Florine Stettheimer, Alfred Stieglitz, John Storrs, Paul Strand, Helen Torr, Max Weber, Edward Weston, Grant Wood, Hale Woodruff, Andrew Wyeth, and William Zorach.

Book Synopsis

An authoritative overview of American modernism

American Modern presents a fresh look at The Museum of Modern Art's holdings of American art made between 1915 and 1950, and considers the cultural preoccupations of a rapidly changing American society in the first half of the twentieth century. Organized thematically and featuring paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculpture, the publication brings together some of the Museum's most celebrated masterworks, contextualizing them across mediums and amidst lesser-seen but revelatory works. The selection of works by artists such as Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Charles Burchfield and Stuart Davis includes urban and rural landscapes, scenes of industry, still-life compositions and portraiture. Although varying in style and specifics, they share certain underlying visual and emotional tendencies. Cityscapes and factories are shown eerily emptied of the crush of residents that flocked to them, becoming both a celebration of clean modern forms and technological advances, as in Sheeler's paintings and photographs, and a reflection of anxiety about increasingly urban lifestyles and their consequences for the American individual, as in Hopper's iconic "Night Windows." Equally silent rural scenes are no less haunting, but perhaps reflect a nostalgia for seemingly simpler times, and a celebration of early American traditions and values. Featured still lifes are as diverse: Stuart Davis' bright, angular compositions marry fractured form with logos and patterns taken from modern advertising, while Charles Demuth's rich watercolors of fruits and vegetables celebrate agricultural bounty and his mastery of the medium. Works by Arthur Dove, Alfred Stieglitz and Andrew Wyeth, among others, suggest different possibilities in portraiture, and the diverse ways artists have thought about the figure and its absence as a way to capture their subject. This volume is a focused look at the strengths and surprises of MoMA's collection in an area that has played a rich and major role in the institution's history.

Review Quotes

American modernism in the years before Abstract Expressionism is the focus of this exhibition, featuring iconic works from MoMA's collection by Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, George Bellows. Alfred Stieglitz and Andrew Wyeth, among other big names.--Howard Halle "Time Out New York"

In the Thirties, MoMA deliberately set out to collect the work of living American artists as a counterbalance to what was considered at the time its concentration on European works.--Lorna Koski "WWD"